Hands on Toto Temple Deluxe!: Chasing Goats [PAX East]

Wrangling up goats is hard enough, but try competing against your friends who are attacking you while trying to do the same. Juicy Beast’s game Toto Temple Deluxe! pits 4 players against each other attempting to keep a hold of a goat to score points. Players can also fight for gold and power-ups all in an attempt to be the first to acquire 3,000 points.

The mechanics are simple: Players have a dash attack to knock the goat away from whoever has it. Mastering the dash’s capabilities is the key to winning, and players able to use the dash skillfully both offensively and defensively will score more points and get themselves out of the way of power-ups and opponents.

Defensively, the player holding the goat has their dash replaced with a shield that can block an incoming dash. Shielding takes a bit of practice, working almost like a counter in a fighting game. It also implements a short cool down period, requiring players to be tactical with its use.

The PAX East demo also featured a showdown bomb mode that was played by the winner of the four player match against the game’s AI. In this mode, two players competed to hold onto a bomb, which after a period of time would detonate in an area surrounding the player who was holding it. In an interesting promotional move, on the show floor if the challenger won the showdown everyone who was watching the match at Juicy Beast’s booth got a free Steam key for the game. Although it seemed some attendees only stuck around for a code, the showdown matches drummed up quite a bit of excitement and made a number of people stop to try their hand at winning when they otherwise may of just walked by.

Hopefully Toto Temple Deluxe! can keep the excitement rolling through it’s planned release sometime this summer on PS4, Xbox One, OUYA, Wii U and PC.